Lawyers are commonly portrayed as ambulance chasers but it appears some don't even have the dignity to stop when the ambulance arrives at the hospital. The FBI in Miami says a lawyer there bought stolen hospital records and used them to solicit clients, later kicking back a percentage of any lawsuit proceeds to the man who sold the records.

The lawyer involved in the scheme was not identified but is reported to be under investigation, the Miami Herald reports. The FBI has charged another man, Ruben E. Rodriguez, 61, with conspiring to sell confidential patient information, computer fraud, wrongful disclosure of medical records and aggravated identity theft.

The report says that Rodriguez allegedly paid $1,000 a month to a technician employed at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. The technician provided the hospital records of hundreds of patients treated for slip-and-fall accidents, car-crash injuries, gunshot wounds and other injuries, the FBI says. Rodriguez then sold the information about the patients and their injuries to the lawyer.

"Whatever the low-water mark would be, this is it," South Florida personal-injury attorney Stuart Z. Grossman told the Miami Herald. "I don't know what would be worse, other than staging an accident." Adds the blog South Florida Lawyers, "Also, last I checked, you were not supposed to share fees with non-lawyers, or is that also one of those ancient and 'dated' rules like the Geneva Convention?"

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A New Low in Ambulance Chasing

Lawyers are commonly portrayed as ambulance chasers but it appears some don't even have the dignity to stop when the ambulance arrives at the hospital. The FBI in Miami says a lawyer there bought stolen hospital records and used them to solicit clients, later kicking back a percentage of any lawsuit proceeds to the man who sold the records.

The lawyer involved in the scheme was not identified but is reported to be under investigation, the Miami Herald reports. The FBI has charged another man, Ruben E. Rodriguez, 61, with conspiring to sell confidential patient information, computer fraud, wrongful disclosure of medical records and aggravated identity theft.

The report says that Rodriguez allegedly paid $1,000 a month to a technician employed at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. The technician provided the hospital records of hundreds of patients treated for slip-and-fall accidents, car-crash injuries, gunshot wounds and other injuries, the FBI says. Rodriguez then sold the information about the patients and their injuries to the lawyer.

"Whatever the low-water mark would be, this is it," South Florida personal-injury attorney Stuart Z. Grossman told the Miami Herald. "I don't know what would be worse, other than staging an accident." Adds the blog South Florida Lawyers, "Also, last I checked, you were not supposed to share fees with non-lawyers, or is that also one of those ancient and 'dated' rules like the Geneva Convention?"